Tinnean

Ashton Laytham was a happy little boy until, at the age of seven, he lost his parents. Sent to Fayerweather to be brought up by his uncle and his uncle’s wife, he was perceived to be an unhappy, unlovable child. Shunned by family and servants and permitted no friends to visit, he grows to adulthood alone and aloof, with only an occasional illicit rendezvous to lighten his days. When his uncle dies, leaving the estate virtually bankrupt, it’s left to Ashton to make good on his uncle’s gaming debts and save Fayerweather. But how? The family talisman, worth thousands of pounds, has been stolen and the suspects vanished in the night, leaving Ashton to face the loss of the home he’s come to love. Geo Stephenson, who works in His Majesty’s civil service, has ghosts of his own. The product of a marriage of convenience, Geo has known all his life his father never loved his mother, and he vows that will never happen to him. Marked by a physical scar earned in battle, none of his previous lovers could bear looking at it without shuddering; his mental scars are due to the many friends lost in useless battles. Geo arrives with a fistful of Sir Eustace Laytham’s IOUs and a solution: Ashton accommodating him in bed, thereby paying off the debt. Attracted to Geo in spite of himself and desperate for any human kindness, Ashton agrees ... never expecting to lose his heart to a man who has sworn he’ll never give his. Can these two men find a measure of happiness together?

Bless Us With Content

“No! She suffered enough at my uncle’s hands. I won’t have her paying for this as well.” I started to raise my hand to scrub it over my face before realising I still held a fistful of paper in it. I kept my hand at my side instead, opening my fingers and letting the vowels fall to the floor. “How much time will you give me?”


I glanced up in time to catch his expression. It was almost as if my reaction wasn’t what he expected. I dismissed that foolish notion.


Stephenson examined his fingernails. “Your uncle used up all the time, I fear.”


“He was aware you held his vowels?”


“As to the time you have…I’ve given you an additional fortnight’s grace due to the unfortunate circumstances of earlier this month, but…” He shrugged.


Chapter 31